Craig Breslow Links Alex Cora Firing to Red Sox's Playoff Hopes

The CBO still sees Boston competing for October...

Dec 9, 2024; Dallas, TX, USA; Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow speaks with the media at the Hilton Anatole during the 2024 MLB Winter Meetings. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Are the Boston Red Sox turning a corner? Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow sure has to hope so.

Breslow's reconstructed Red Sox roster underperformed to an almost comical degree early in the season. Then, two weeks ago, he and the Boston ownership group came to the conclusion that the best way to fix a 9-17 start was to fire manager Alex Cora and nearly all of his top assistants.

Now that the Red Sox are 6-4 with Cora gone, including a three-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers this week, Breslow is planting his flag in the ground. These Red Sox, he says, are still fully capable of making the postseason.

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Breslow says Cora firing was "driven" by playoff belief

Mar 30, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora walks to the mound for a pitching change during the fifth inning against the Houston Astros at Daikin Park. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

During his Thursday appearance on the "Greg Hill Show" on WEEI, Breslow explained that when he made the decision to fire Cora, he did so with the belief that handing the team to interim manager Chad Tracy could spur a playoff run.

“I do,” Breslow said. “I believed in the offseason, I believed it coming into Spring Training, and I believe it right now. This decision, this really, really difficult decision, it was driven by that.

"I will be the first to acknowledge that we have not played up to our potential. We’ve got a lot of season in front of us to do that and to get back on the right track. Hopefully, what we’ve seen over the last three days is the start of that.”

Entering Thursday, Boston was nine games out of first place in the American League East, but only one game out of a wild card spot. Tracking those data points in early may is silly by nature, but in this context, it's a worthy reminder that the season has still barely begun.

Of course, that also meant the Cora firing was shocking, because it seemingly was based on such a small sample. But we've seen plenty of evidence that Breslow and Cora disagreed on enough things through the years that the executive may have just wanted more control over things like the lineup card and bullpen usage.

That also means, of course, that there's all sorts of pressure on Breslow to make good on those playoff hopes, or he'll be the one shouldering the worst of the blame for this team going backwards.